Trump’s quest to end birthright citizenship is all about fear

How race and identity are shaping politics, policy and power.
Dec 10, 2024 View in browser
 
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By Brakkton Booker and Andrew Howard

What up, Recast fam. On today’s agenda:

  • We explore the president-elect’s push to end birthright citizenship 
  • Trump taps an anti-woke warrior to lead DOJ’s Civil Rights Division
  • A look at how Vietnamese American candidate blew up Democrats; playbook for winning a conservative California district 

Jose Antonio Vargas arrives at the Gold House Gala.

Jose Antonio Vargas arrives at the Gold House Gala on May 21, 2022, at Vibiana in Los Angeles. | Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP

When President-elect Donald Trump returns to the White House next month, he is vowing to “absolutely” revoke birthright citizenship — and it's igniting fear among people who are undocumented and their families.

“I'm not even sure if fear is the word. It's just downright panic,” said Jose Antonio Vargas, a journalist and activist who has written extensively about his experience growing up undocumented in the U.S. He recently launched a YouTube podcast, “Define America.”

Legal scholars and immigration activists The Recast spoke to raise doubts Trump can end the right. Enshrined in the Constitution by the 14th Amendment, birthright citizenship dates back to the Reconstruction Era. It grants citizenship to anyone born on U.S. soil and was first extended to formerly enslaved people born in the U.S.

“We’re going to have to get it changed,” Trump said in an extended interview with NBC News, his first since winning the presidency in last month’s elections. “We’ll maybe have to go back to the people. But we have to end it.”

 

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Some suggested the likeliest scenario would likely come through a court challenge on an argument backed by many conservatives that citizenship should not extend to American-born children of undocumented residents.

Even if it’s mostly bluster, Trump’s tough talk of abolishing birthright citizenship is delivering on a central campaign promise, driving immigration policy through fear. The larger concern is that this time Democrats as a national party are too diminished to put up enough resistance.

A quote from Jose Antonio Vargas.

“For me, it solidified that Trump and his acolytes…learned what they need to learn from the first administration, and are ready to put into action,” what they didn’t get around to doing in his first term, and are prioritizing it now, Vargas added.

Now, activists are mobilizing to appeal to elected officials on the local and municipal level who can be swayed to act on behalf to protect their residents.

“If they aren't panicked, then shame on the people who gave them reason to think that they were going to be able to stay here forever,” said Jessica Vaughan who is the Director of Policy Studies for the Center for Immigration Studies.

She argues that other temporary asylum programs have been used improperly by Democratic administrations, and when people stay past their allotted time, they have been given a false sense of hope that a pathway to citizenship would be guaranteed.

Jessica Vaughan testifies.

Jessica Vaughan testifies before the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration Integrity, Security, and Enforcement hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, April 26, 2023. | Jose Luis Magana/AP

But even without the erasure of a constitutional right, there are plenty of other ways Trump can cause panic in these communities. Vaughan believes Trump will go after those who overstay a visa or are in the country beyond the expiration of their Temporary Protective Status; the U.S.-born children of those people may be barred from receiving any birthright citizenship – at least until litigation has run its course. Trump has also promised to revoke TPS for several nations, including Haiti, Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela.

For activists like Nana Gyamfi of Black Alliance for Just Immigration, the rhetoric from Trump is prompting more organizing by grassroots groups as they work to strategize how to offer protections to vulnerable communities. When asked if she’s relying on Democrats to put up a sustained fight on this issue, her answer was succinct.

“Hell no!” Gyamfi told The Recast that her organization “has never been looking at the Democratic Party as a backstop.”

For Tania Unzueta, the political director for the Latino-led civil activist group Mijente, the worry is more about Trump's promise to follow through on mass deportations.

Unzueta lives in Chicago, a sanctuary city, where the mayor Brandon Johnson and Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker have vowed to buck Trump on his deportation plans. Trump’s incoming border czar Tom Homan was in the Windy City on Monday where he said he welcomes Illinois Democratic leaders to the table to help on immigration, adding: “Help us protect you,” he said. “Please. But if you don’t, get the hell out of the way.”

When asked if she was hopeful Illinois Democrats were up to the task of pushing back on Trump's immigration push, Unzueta said: “I wouldn't put it as hope. I would definitely stay focused."

“It's still a controversy in the city,” she said. “I feel like part of the strategy here is to also really pit people against each other and use immigrants as a scapegoat.”

We’ll keep tabs on this moving forward.

All the best,
The Recast Team

 

Billions in spending. Critical foreign aid. Immigration reform. The final weeks of 2024 could bring major policy changes. Inside Congress provides daily insights into how Congressional leaders are navigating these high-stakes issues. Subscribe today.

 
 

HARMEET DHILLON PICKED TO LEAD DOJ CIVIL RIGHTS DIVISION

Harmeet Dhillon speaks.

Harmeet Dhillon speaks on Capitol Hill in Washington, May 11, 2023. | Andrew Harnik/AP

Harmeet Dhillon, a California attorney who made her name on anti-woke policies, is Trump's pick to lead the DOJ’s Civils Rights Division.

Dhillon, who was born in India and delivered a Sikh prayer onstage in the 2016 and 2024 Republican National Conventions, is one of Trump’s staunchest allies, and filed suits on his behalf challenging the results of the 2020 presidential election. She previously sued companies for discrimination against white employees and U.C. Berkeley for cancelling an on-campus appearance by a far-right commentator Ann Coulter.

In announcing Dhillon’s nomination in a Truth Social post, Trump praised her as “tireless defender of our Constitutional Rights” while adding she consistently protected civil liberties and free speech while “suing corporations who use woke policies to discriminate against their workers.”

Dhillon, who will need to be confirmed by the Senate to serve in the post, said it was a “dream” to serve and was looking forward to working at a Justice Department led by Pam Bondi, Trump’s selection for attorney general.

In early 2023, Dhillon mounted an ultimately unsuccessful challenge to then-RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel, suggesting the party needed new leadership. McDaniel, at the time, enjoyed broad support among the small number of anti-Trump voting members of the RNC. But McDaniel’s on board for Trump now, and served as his election integrity division in Arizona during his 2024 campaign.

Dhillon joins a growing number of South Asian Americans selected to the incoming Trump administration, which includes Kash Patel, the president-elect’s pick to run the FBI and Vivek Ramaswamy, who is slated to co-chair the Department of Government Efficiency advisory committee which aims to advise Trump and Congress on ways to cut billions from the federal budget.

 

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

Derek Tran arrives on Capitol Hill.

Derek Tran arrives on Capitol Hill on Nov. 14, 2024, in Washington. | Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

The son of Vietnamese refugees makes history — POLITICO’s Melanie Mason shares the story of how Rep.-elect Derek Tran broke barriers and flipped this GOP-held seat, while blowing up the Democratic campaign playbook.

 And more: 

  • Tulsi Gabbard, Trump’s pick to be Director of National Intelligence, kicks off her Senate charm offensive  POLITICO’s John Sakellariadis reports.  
  • Also Joni Ernst, thought to be a holdout on Pete Hegseth, appears to be warming to the idea of supporting him,reports POLITICO’s Connor O’Brien and Joe Gould.
  • Also, in last week’s Recast, we featured Chuck Rocha, the longtime Democratic operative who was mulling a run for DNC Chair. Well, he decided against it: Read why in his Boston Globe op-ed.
 

TODAY’S CULTURE RECS

TODAY’S CULTURE RECS

Remembering iconic poet Nikki Giovanni who died at 81.

Also in other pop news Jay-Z hits back at a  lawsuit accusing him of sexual assault of teenager, calling it “blackmail.”

Edited by Kay Steiger and Teresa Wiltz.

 

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